Coin chute



p 1940- w. A. TRATSCH ET AL 2,215,673

com CHUTE Filed Nov/l8, 193s 5 INVENTORS.

% rye/ 2 ATTO 12y.

Patented Sept. 24, 1940 UNETED STATES FATE COIN CHUTE Application November 18, 1938, Serial No. 241,114,

2 Claims.

This invention pertains to coin testing apparatus and has as its principal object the provision of a novel form of drop-out opening in a coin chute having a descending coin passage, the drop-out opening being arranged in a particular manner in a floor portion of the chute passage and being dimensioned and disposed so that coin elements of less than a predetermined thickness will gravitate out of the passage through the drop-out opening, whereas other coin elements of greater thickness will continue on through the passage.

Another object is the provision in a coin chute of the type having a pivoted side wall section constituting a gate, which may be opened to provide a sidewise discharge passage from the main chute passage, of a selective drop-out opening formed in the chute so as to lead out of the passage in a downward direction from a floor of the main coin passage and beneath a particularly formed edge portion of the gate, coins of less than the predetermined thickness automatically passing out of the chute through the downwardly inclined drop-out opening.

Other advantages and novel aspects of the invention reside in certain details of construction, form, location, and mode of operation of the illustrative embodiment described hereinafter in view of the annexed drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a coin chute and the gate thereof;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the coin chute with the cover plate removed, showing the main coin passage;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective of the operating mechanism for the gate;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section along line i-t of Fig. 1.

The invention may be applied to a variety of types of coin chute, and for purposes of illustra tion I have chosen one which is constructed of a pair of plate members it and H (Figs. 2 and l), in one of which there are cast formations defining a descending coin passage 12 (Fig. 2) having an entrance opening it at its upper end and a plurality of discharge openings [4 and i 5 at its lower end, the opening it constituting an acceptance opening. while the opening !5 constitutes a reject opening. The plates H3 and I I are clamped together by any suitabie means, such as screws and the like, and in their assembled relation provide a coin chute having a descending coin passage down which coins may gravitate toward the openings l4 and [5.

The chute is provided with a movable side wall section I6 (Figs. 1 and 4) which is pivoted as at l l for movement toward and away from the main chute passage and constitutes a gate which, in its open position, opens up substantially the whole upper section iZa of the main chute passage to provide a sidewise discharge opening.

Means for operating the gate includes a lever I8 pivotally mounted as at 89 on the side wall N3 of the chute, and having an end portion engaging a lateral pin on a lift bar 2t slidably mounted on pin means 2! along an edge of the chute for'vertical reciprocal movement responsive to operation of the lever it. When the shift rod 28 is raised a cam formation 22 thereon bearsagainst an 'ear 23 projecting from. the gate and pivots the latter to open position, the weight of the gate plus the efiort of the spring 24 on a stationary pin 25 therethrough being effective to restore the same, as well as the lift rod 28, to normal position when the lever i8 is released.

The coin chute includes a plurality of coin testing devices, among others a primary testing magnet 353 (Fig. 1) arranged in the region of the coin entrance I 3. A feeler 3i pivotally mounted on ears 32 and having magnetically attractable end portion 33 positioned for attraction by the magnet 39, is projected into the chute passage section 52a opposite the gate, through an elongated selective opening 3 in the gate and extending substantially parallel to the downwardly inclined fioor portion E2!) of the chute passage opposite the gate and beneath the coin entrance it. The discharge opening 3t is of a width slightly less than the diameter of the denomination of coin which the chute is intended to accept, so that coin elements which are undersized with respect to their diameter will in all probability be shunted out the discharge opening 3G for gravitation into a reject chute 35 positioned therebelow.

The arrangement of the testing apparatus in theregion of the gate is such that magnetically attractable coin elements arrested by the magnet it} will be discharged into the chute 35 when the gate is opened,as will perforate and other imperfect coin elements which are arrested by the feeler 3i A further testing means includes the provision of a rebound anvil 38 opposite a second sidewise discharge opening in the plate H opposite a de pressed floor portion 39 in the passage. Coin elements of proper physical characteristics leaving the floor portion i211 will strike the anvil 38 with the requisite force to cause the coin element to rebound and carry over the depressed floorv portion 38 for continued movement down the passage III I2 and through the magnetic field of permanent magnets 40, and if the coin element is an acceptable one, it will strike a light-weight dangler 4i pivoted as at 42 in the chute passage and move into the acceptance opening I4. Cardboard and other light-weight coin elements which succeed in reaching the lower portions of the chute will not have sufficient energy to pivot the dangler 4| and will therefore be caused to move into the reject opening I5. Moreover, improper metallic coin elements which succeed in reaching the level of the magnets 4|] will lose energy in passing through the field of the magnets and be caused to gravitate toward a pointed deflector or selector 43 positioned between the openings I4 and I and arranged to deflect such coin elements into the reject opening 15.

Some of the foregoing testing devices are shown and described in detail in our copending U. S. application, Serial No. 223,585, to which reference may be had for particulars of construction and operation of this type of chute or testing apparatus.

A particular feature of the present invention is the provision of an additional testing means for use in coin chutes of the class heretofore described and which includes a coin passage with a descending floor portion, with or without the movable side wall section or gate IS, the novel testing means being in the form of a drop-out opening 56 (Figs. 2 and 4) formed in the descending floor portion lZb in the upper section l2a of the chute passage. This drop-out Opening is of a predetermined length substantially equal to or a trifle greater than the diameter of a proper coin element which the testing device is intended to accept.

The drop-out opening 50 (Fig. 4) is directed downwardly from the floor section l2b with its innermost surface portion 5| extending at an angle to the plane of the coin passage and terminating at its upper end 52 at a point spaced toward the center of the passage from the juncture of the floor section 121) with the vertical wall of the plate ID, as indicated at 53, it being observed that the floor portion I20 between the opposite ends of the opening 50 is slanted toward the gate l6, as is the remainder of the floor portion I21), the purpose of this being to assure a suitable bias of descending coin elements toward the discharge opening 34 in the gate, so that undersized coins will be, in a manner of speaking, pitched toward and through the opening 34.

In the present arrangement, the opposite side of the drop-out opening is formed by the lower edge portion 54 of the gate 16, the inner surface of which edge portion is beveled as at 55 so as to slant in the same direction as the inner wall of the drop-out opening.

The width of the mouth of the drop-out opening 56 transversely across the floor I21), that is, from the point 52 to the plane of the inner face of the gate, is less than the thickness of a proper or acceptable coin element so that the latter in rolling down the floor |2b may pass over the opening 59, whereas coin elements which are of a thickness less than that of an acceptable coin will slip into the opening 50 and gravitate downwardly from the floor of the passage out of the chute and into the reject chute 35 in the manner indicated by the dotted line representation of a coin C in Fig. 4.

Thus, both the diameter and the thickness of the coin are tested at substantially the same time while the coin traverses the upper passage section 12a, the coin also being tested for perforations and abnormal surface configurations by the feeler 3|, and for its magnetic properties by the magnet 30 before it leaves the upper section, the coin thereafter being tested for its hardness and weight by the anvil 38, and for its metallic properties by the magnets 40, and again for its weight by the dangler 4|, all in the short interval of time necessary to negotiate the passage from the entrance to the exits.

Should coin elements of irregular planar form become lodged in the drop-out opening 50, they will be freed when the gate is opened, this being one of the advantages of having the gate form a side wall for the drop-out opening, another advantage of this latter arrangement being the cooperation between the discharge opening 34 with the drop-out opening 50, due to their proximity and due to the tendency of a coin which is even slightly under the required thickness to drop to a level where, should it not slip readily into the drop-out opening 50, it might nevertheless be pitched into and through the discharge opening 34.

It will be understood that the invention extends to the provision of a drop-out opening in a chute which does not have the movable side wall section or gate structure 16, in which case the opening would be a slot cut into the body of the chute with its upper end or mouth terminating in a floor of the chute passage, and its lower portions extending downwardly, and preferably out of the plane of the coin passage, to terminate in a discharge receptacle or chute.

The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized through other forms of construction than that described in detail for purposes of illustration herein, and it is a condition of this disclosure that all equivalent arrangements with respect to form, location, construction, and mode of operation of the various parts thereof, are to be included in the call of the appended claims defining the invention.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a coin testing device of the type having a coin passage disposed in a substantially vertical plane between opposite vertical wall portions and having a descending floor portion, selecting means including the provision of a dropout opening having a mouth opening into said passage through said descending floor portion and leading downwardly out of the plane of said passage through one of said wall portions, the width of said mouth being less than the thickness of a predetermined acceptable coin element so that coin elements which are thinner than the acceptable coin elements will drop into said mouth and slip through said drop-out opening out of said device, that one of said vertical wall portions through which said drop-out opening leads having a movable gate section arranged for movement out of the plane of said wall portion to provide a sidewise discharge opening in said passage, said movable wall section or gate having a lower edge portion which is beveled substantially at the inclination of the drop-out opening and which constitutes an opposite movable wall section of the latter such that when said gate is opened the drop-out opening will likewise be opened by removal of one of its side portions.

2. In a coin chute of the type having a rolldown passage for coins and a side-opening scavenging gate therein, means for efiecting ejectproviding one wall of the drop-out opening, saidopening having a similarly slanted wall opposite the one on the gate and effective to cause thin coins to be deflected from the passage at an angle to the plane of the coin passage.

WALTER A. TRATSCH. WILLIAM PATZER. 

